Today, it resembles other digital helpers you've likely used — things like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana.
YadaYada.com, which provides wireless Web access to users of P.D.A.'s, those palm-size digital helpers, has gotten down to basics with its latest information service: a listing of public bathrooms in 12 North American cities.
In fact, the number of digital helpers that can fit in farmers' pockets has grown dramatically in recent years.
Mr. Brand, a former substance abuser known for his high jinks, wryly asks his digital helper to check the (unlikely) status of his knighthood.
After discussing the usefulness of Google as a prosthetic memory, for instance, she jumps to an implausible future in which people had not "internalised any facts at all" and discussion of the world becomes impossible without a pocket digital helper.
However, he cautions that software developers will have to be careful to avoid making services that are annoying or creepy, or else they'll create more "paper clip stories"—a reference to Clippy, the much maligned (and now extinct) digital helper in Microsoft's Office software.
Copycat: Google said Monday that it will let companies make touch-screen devices that include its Google Assistant digital helper, making it possible to ask questions that can be best answered with videos, like "How do I bake a pie?" The move sounds a lot like what Amazon's already doing with its Echo Show, a $230 countertop gadget with a display and a speaker that runs Amazon's Alexa assistant.
This isn't a virtual assistant that lives in the cloud, but a digital helper that can pair up with the apps uniquely taking advantage of Apple's hardware and software capabilities to truly improve your use of the device.
After reviewing the IP addresses of contributors, Qatar Computing Research Institute observed that the majority of these digital MicroMapper helpers were from northern countries.
Facebook plans to change that with Facebook M, a digital assistant that's a hybrid of an artificial intelligence program and a network of human helpers.
Walmart's investment in holiday helpers is evidence that, even in the digital era, retailers are focused on fine-tuning the in-store experience.
